Get dressed in your bed, while she’s asleep
It isn’t right, but it isn’t hard
Tell me, tell me, won’t you understand?
Show me, show me, show me a better plan
It’s summer lies, it’s someone else’s nothing
Here it comes now

You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
But there’s a million reasons to leave

Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down

Please, please don’t point it that way
It’s just a trigger that goes once and you’ll be unafraid
I wish that I’d been noticed, but it never goes that way
The silence that you brought has gone, gone, gone

Tell me, tell me, won’t you understand?
Show me, show me, show me

You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
But there’s a million reasons to leave

Show me what to say, show me what to be
Show me what to see, show me what to be

Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down

I don’t wanna be in there with you
I don’t wanna be in there without your loving either
I waited for your thoughts
Can’t wait no longer

He is telling himself to leave and convincing himself to do it. She wants him to explain why he wants to leave, but she won't understand.

You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
You ask me to stay
But there’s a million reasons to leave

She continues and asks him to stay with her, but he has many reasons to leave.

Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down

This describes his past. He found a job, friends, a home, a pet, and he settled down. Despite the fact that man gaining the idealistic goals of the American Dream, he never gained love. Now he wants to leave because he isn't happy.

Please, please don’t point it that way
It’s just a trigger that goes once and you’ll be unafraid
I wish that I'd been noticed, but it never goes that way
The silence that you brought has gone, gone, gone

He's telling himself once he leaves it will be over and he will no longer be unhappy. He wishes he could have been "noticed," or that she would have actually loved him. When he leaves her, the lack of love, or silence, will be gone.

I don’t wanna be in there with you
I don’t wanna be in there without your loving either
I waited for your thoughts
Can't wait no longer

This is the explanation for why he wants to leave. He doesn't want to be with someone who doesn't love him. He loves her but she doesn't love him, and he waited for her feelings and love but he can't wait any longer.

I think the "find a job" part shows that while him and his partner have all of those conventional things, they do not have love. He tries to tell her how he feels but she does not understand. Without love, he is not happy and wants to leave.

My InterpretationI think the meaning of this song is pretty apparent. Sounds to me that his wife is wanting him to retire, and wants them to move somewhere else and settle down and just be a normal family. But he's not ready to do that just yet, but he doesn't want her to leave him or make any major decisions without him. That's my interpretation of it anyway. Pretty point blank.

Sarah, don't worry about posting your first impressions and then realising you wouldn't have said that if you had known the actual lyrics - you still did the forum a favour by providing a starting point.

... And I, too, first thought it's just a love song, or a song about leaving, maybe a one night stand, maybe a wife, whatever.

But a friend of mine pointed out that there's another dimension to this: it's likely not about wanting to leave this person, but primarily about wanting leave a narrow lifestyle:

"Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down"

And only secondarily, if the other person cannot make the same leap to leave the familiar, only then leave her (or him) as well.

General CommentThe song seems to be about a guy who's already settled down (he's already got the job, friend, home, and dog), but is still trying to juggle all that with his dream, whatever that may be. On top of all this, the girl he's with doesn't seem to love him any longer. He seems to be saying that the only reason he agreed to settle down was because of his love for that girl, but now he's realizing it was all just "Summer lies". When she finally catches him leaving, he gives her his reason and asks her to give him an answer, but he gets tired of waiting.

General CommentSounds to me like this is about a man who's being unfaithful. He talks about laying in her bed with someone else. He seems to be fed up and undecided about being in this relationship and he's asking his girl to tell him what he wants her to do.

My Interpretationto me it's about this guy who met this girl inn summer (as he says "it's summer lies", like those happy relationships that last no longer than four months and between this time they believe and say it's going to last forever) in a holliday or something. Then, the hollyday ends, he has to go, he always knew it was going to happen. But the girl doesn't want it to happen, she wants him to stay. He doesn't want ("I don't wanna be in there with you": he doesn't want to take her with him, "I don't wanna be in there without your loving either", he doesn't want to lose that love, but he will) and doesn't know how to break up (" show me what to say"), but there is no other option no better plan, no better perspective ("show me a better plan", "show me what to see", "show me what to be"), he has to build his life ("find a job, find a friend, find a home, find a dog, settle down out of town, find a dream, shut it down").

My InterpretationMost interpretations are far off i think. Consider the authors and the band, they are voyeurs into modern society and this is another great example of seeing 'us' as people aiming for the wrong things in life, being misdirected and shallow. I always enjoy Julians duality of thought and emotion in his writing, one hand he is in control the next he needs to be shown how to 'be'. Now this doesnt necessarily mean its his view or his retrospect it could be some joe he met, or it doesnt take much to imagine that is how we all are... we need to:
"Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down'

By shutting down i think he means end of your journey, life. So what is it all for, these roles we play.
I see this song also has suicidal gestures, 'a million reasons to leave' suggests that whilst someone or something is encouraging to keep on going, there are a lot of reasons to leave this place.

As well is reading to much into it, this song could be about a relationship that is struggling to find commitment, the balance and path is in question, should he want all those things common people desire, it seems pointless, he needs another opinion but really he's on the fence..

MemoryI think this counts as a memory, since it has to do with a personal experience of mine.

My best friend at the time, and still is, had frequent suicidal thoughts, but it was a bit weird, since you would see her as a very happy person, she had a boyfriend, she had good health, good family, and nice friends. But you can never judge someone's thoughts knowing just that.

Behind everything there were little holes of problems, that were destroying her, her boyfriend was a wreck, there was some trouble in her family, most of her friends were untrusty, and she like herself the way she was. She would tell only me about these problems, and I always did my best to help her, I remember telling her once that "There is a million reasons to live".

I see this lyric as a counterpart of my perspective, what she was thinking.

Expressing how fun things ended up bad for her, how things were a mess, not right but not hard, sunny summers being unmeaningful, looking for a better plan of enjoyment apart from ending her life.

Im asking her to stay, im trying to convince her, and in an opposite meaning but same pronounciation, I tell her there's a million reasons to live, "But there's a million reasons to leave"

"Find a job, find a friend
Find a home, find a dog
Settle down, out of town
Find a dream, shut it down"

She tells herself how to live her life, how maybe by accomplishing simple and rewarding things may make things better, but as she keeps finding problems in them, she just wants to shut everything down.

"Please, please don’t point it that way
It’s just a trigger that goes once and you’ll be unafraid"

The rest is talk of being uneasy, of how all of it would be cleansed by just simply pulling a trigger,it would only have to go once and everything is solved, an easy task for her.

At the very end.

"I don’t wanna be in there with you
I don’t wanna be in there without your loving either
I waited for your thoughts
Can’t wait no longer"

She doesn't wanna be in life, but she doesn't want to miss out on everything either. She finally realizes that she's doing all of these things that are destroying her because she wants people to think normal of her, having a boyfriend, having friends, even though it hurts her, but she is not waiting for these thoughts anymore.

If anyone asks, she's more than great now, this situation was hard on both of us, but now it's just a reminder of what we don't have to do to ourselves in life, as is any other situation we live. To this day she still tells me that I saved her life, and I couldn't be more happy about that.

The Strokes have been my favorite band for a long time now, but believe it or not, this song from my least favorite album, is the one that speaks to me the most, I feel describes what we lived perfectly. I always find meanings in their songs, sometimes political, sometimes even of situations from Julian or the other members, but few songs I feel resemble my life, this is the biggest of them.